The Royal Mineral Hospital

As I had spent 7 months examining adolescent chronic pain data at the University of Bath Centre for Pain Research, I decided it was high time I descended from the ivory tower on the hill to get a first-hand and personal look at the hospital where the adolescents with chronic pain receive treatment: The Royal Mineral Hospital Pain Management Program.

On Friday, I completed the 3-week, 9-5, adolescent and parent, pain program. Rather than just involve myself with the Psychology strand, I stayed with the 6 adolescents and their mums for every session (physio, occupational, medical, psychology) through the day. It was intense and exhausting and I don't even have chronic pain. I shouldn't complain too much about the 3 weeks; most people work all year for 3 weeks off... ;) The program is remarkable and the treatment team seamlessly works together to help the adolescents and their parents break old patterns and begin to get their academic, social, professional, and personal lives back on track - despite having chronic pain. There are many difficult and heart-wrenching moments, but there are fun times too. I'll share a couple of the light-hearted events.

We went to the gym so that the adolescents could work on their individual goals, which range from bending a leg, touching a foot to the floor, and weight-bearing, to walking and exercising. One of the activities was a dancing game. Basically, there are dance mats wirelessly connected to a large screen. We compete against each other by dancing to the song and pressing the mat arrows in the correct sequence. The adolescents encouraged me to join the game, which I did. Well, the first round I found it challenging and at the end of the song noticed that I came in 6th place...out of 6 dancers. The next 2 songs I really focused and was never able to do better than 5th place. I do not consider myself a great dancer, but jeez, these kids were on crutches! They were really laughing at me, which they said was because I looked like a rabbit bouncing on my pad. It wasn't until later that one of them confessed that their giggles were because they had noticed that my mat was turned off and not registering!

There is a holiday in England called Red Nose day. On that day, you do humorous things to raise money for charity. The adolescents and their parents decided that for Red Nose day, the treatment team would wear their "pants" on the outside of their clothes. No boxers aloud. So, we pranced around all day wearing our underwear on top of our trousers. Let me tell you, it is hard to have a serious conversation with an adolescent and her mum when you are standing there with a tie, dress shirt, fancy slacks, and striped tight briefs. Well, I guess it is all for a good cause.

A side-benefit of working in the hospital rather than up at the University is that I could skip out for lunch and walks around downtown Bath, which was a treat. As you might be able to make out from the photo, the hospital is in the middle of a great pedestrian and shopping area. Also, since I was not working a stone's throw from our house, I had the opportunity to bike to and from the hospital each day. Given that our cottage is on top of a mile long steep hill, the ride to work was a breeze, but the ride home on my fixed gear bike was a chore. I will decline from sharing the story of when I wasn't paying attention and ran into a van, which was stopped at a light. Please know that only my pride was hurt when all of the windows rolled down and the carload of teens looked at me with a mixture of concern, confusion, and amusement.

All in all, it was wonderful working with the adolescents and their parents, and the experience will undoubtedly breathe life into my research.